


parting is such sorrow

by HeavensArcher



Series: Jaegercon Bingo [8]
Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: F/M, Gen, raleigh/mako at the end kinda?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-09
Updated: 2013-08-09
Packaged: 2017-12-22 22:29:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/918757
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavensArcher/pseuds/HeavensArcher
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"post-canon" fill. The fight was over. Done. Now it was time to say goodbye.</p>
            </blockquote>





	parting is such sorrow

(post-canon)

The hardest thing to do was say goodbye.

The kaiju threat had passed. The breach was sealed. Over the course of several weeks, the surviving pilots and the skeleton support crew that had run that final Hail Mary to the centre of the destruction had been interviewed and commended and received medals and recognition until it made their heads spin and their chests feel like they weight one hundred kilos.

They had attended funeral after funeral. Flying to the countries where their brothers and sisters in arms had hailed from before throwing themselves into screeching metal and pulsating weaponry. Australia, China, England, Russia…between the two of them, Mako and Raleigh had attempted to have one of them present at each of the funerals. Raleigh had been there for Mako as she let flowers drift off into the ocean water, where he now rested. The two of them were silent sentinels beside Herc as he knelt down beside Max and tried not to cry.

But the shatterdome was being cleared out now. They were heroes, but their villains were gone. The barracks, which had once been so bustling and loud with laughs and the sound of basketballs hitting walls were eerily silent as the majority of the support teams had left last week. The Kwoon room usually full of the sounds of people laughing as others hit the mat and swore and even more took bets as they watched on was totally empty.

The bays were clear of the once proud sentinels, now at the bottom of the ocean.

Mako, Raleigh, Herc, Newt and Hermann stood quietly next to each other just outside the bay doors, staring into what had become their whole world. Today, the power was being cut, and the rebuilding would get completely underway. The governments behind funding the PPDC had considered making the last running shatterdome into a museum, but quiet talks from Herc had shut that idea down. None of them could bare to think of something that had been so important, where so many people had been before losing their lives, becoming a tourist attraction.

Newt and Hermann left first, Hermann having invited the hyperenergetic man to meet his wife back. They nodded quiet goodbyes and took their hands firmly before moving off to the car waiting for them. Neither looked back.

Herc was the next to leave. With one final sad look at the shatterdome and the sea beside it, he turned and gave Mako a gentle hug and whispered something in her ear that made her smile sadly. The older man clasped Raleigh on the shoulder and looked about to say something before closing his mouth and shaking his head slightly. He nodded to him with a look in his eyes that Raleigh easily returned. Herc turned from the shatterdome and over to the car that would take him to the airport and back to his home in Australia. His steps faltered and he threw one last look over the dome and the ocean, as if looking for his son one last time, then the legend disappeared down the road.

“What will you do?” Mako asked quietly, resolutely not looking at her co-pilot next to her.

Raleigh exhaled gently, scuffing the ground with one of his worn boots. “I don’t know. It seems kind of surreal. I keep thinking I’m going to turn around to someone calling me back to pilot. I know that I had things I wanted to do, to see, before K-Day but…I can’t remember what they were anymore. I might just wander til I remember.”

Mako smiled sadly, turning to him. “You’re always welcome to my couch if you’re in town.”

Raleigh grinned down at her, “Not a spare bed? I’m hurt, Mako.”

The woman scoffed, “You’re lucky you’re worth the couch.”

The two laughed gently before turning and hugging gently. Mako whispered in the man’s ear, “Don’t search too long, Mr. Becket.”

Pressing a kiss to her forehead, Raleigh closed his eyes. “Promise.”


End file.
